Jeymes Samuel is going from the Wild West to the wild world of superheroes.
The filmmaker behind Netflix’ all-star Western The Harder They Fall is reteaming with the streaming giant and boarding the adaptation of Boom! Studios’ comic series Irredeemable and its spinoff, Incorruptible.
The unique undertaking will combine the two separate titles into one feature. It will be written by Kemp Powers, who earned an Oscar nomination for writing One Night in Miami. He is also known for co-writing and co-directing Pixar’s Oscar-winning animated movie, Soul.
Created by veteran comics author Mark Waid and illustrated mostly by Peter Krause, Irredeemable served as a deconstruction and upending of some of the most well-known superhero tropes as it told the story of how the world’s greatest hero – The Plutonian – snapped under the pressure of his responsibilities and charted a dark path to become the world’s greatest supervillain, slaughtering millions in the process.
The spinoff series, Incorruptible, flipped the paradigm and followed supervillain Max Damage as he responded to the Plutonian’s evil by gradually transforming himself into a superhero with the aim of stopping the former hero, but with the added pressure of doing so before his own degenerative powers caused him to lose his mind.
The comics ran from 2009 to 2012 and were key early successes for Boom!, which was still trying to find its footing as an indie publisher. Irredeemable ran for 37 issues and sold more 1.5 million copies during its run, while Incorruptible lasted 30 issues and sold more than 1 million copies, according to company figures.
Producing the adaptation will be Samuel, Shawn Carter (AKA Jay-Z) and James Lassiter, the latter two who produced Samuel’s Western, as well as Stephen Christy and Ross Richie for Boom!
Boom! has a first-look TV deal with Netflix and also recently set up a feature adaptation of BRZRKR, the comic co-created and co-written by Keanu Reeves.
Powers, who is currently co-directing Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part 1 and Part 2, and Adam Yoelin will serve as executive producers.
Samuel came from the music scene and was the executive music consultant for Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film, The Great Gatsby. He made his screen debut writing, directing and scoring the Western short, They Die by Dawn.
Harder They Fall was his feature debut and starred the powerhouse cast of Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Regina King, Delroy Lindo and Lakeith Stanfield, among others. The stylish revisionist Western, centering on true-life outlaws and anti-heroes, scored an 88 percent on Rotten Tomatoes after it debuted on Netflix in November.
Samuel is repped by CAA and Johnson, while Powers is repped by Gersh, Media Talent Group and Johnson Shapiro.
Source: Hollywood
